TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE, MENTIONS OF DEATH!

Thanks for hanging in there, readers!

Roman smiled as the entire ship vibrated and hummed with energy. He looked back at Romeo and said, "The entire world will surrender to us within 48 hours, Romeo. You will finally rule this pitiful world." Amaya and Greg just sat there, jaws slack. Romeo had done it.

Romeo replied, "Nothing they can do to stop me this time, huh?"

"Exactly." Then, it stopped. Roman turned around to admire the destruction, but on the big screen, nothing had happened. Roman said, "What the Hell?"

Romeo blinked. "What happened?" He clicked his console. "Check your readings!"

Roman turned around and typed on his console. "We were off target! It just hit the ocean! Dammit!" Roman looked over at Romeo. "You son of a bitch!"

Romeo winked with a fantastic grin. Roman reached for one of the weapons in his lab coat pocket, and Romeo said, "Oh no you don't!" He snapped his fingers, and the console Roman was standing at exploded in his face. Roman was thrown clear and sprawled onto the floor. A second explosion happened near the area of the room where the Anomaly was at, and Romeo grabbed his right arm tenderly as he was hit by shrapnel. "Damn!" Romeo quickly turned around and rushed toward Greg and Amaya, his arm dripping hot blood.

They were both shocked, but Amaya looked relieved as Romeo stood her up and untied her. "You two have to get out of here. Greg is too dazed to help fight, just go!" He pointed to the nearby escape pod. Amaya shakily bent down to untie Greg, who had blood crusted around his left ear from where Loki had tackled him earlier.

Amaya helped Greg up and said, "You really had me going there for a second."

Romeo looked back at Roman; he was getting up. "You two have to go! Quick! Catboy might need you! I'll hold him off, just go!"

They ran over to the pod and got inside like they had with the one yesterday. Romeo didn't follow them, though. Amaya looked at him, horrified at the situation. "Romeo, come on, we can't leave you!" Greg was still in shock from the explosion, but he was beginning to come around.

Roman took out his weapon, and Romeo waved his hands in front of him, grunting at the effort of swinging his injured arm. A forcefield popped up and stopped the energy blast from hitting them. Romeo turned around. "What are you two waiting for? You have to get out of here! Go!" Hot blood trickled down the sleeve of his lab coat when he noticed Greg stirring next to Amaya. "GREG! Pull the eject lever! NOW! PLEASE!"

Roman was only a few feet away from Romeo by the time Amaya started to move to get out of the pod. Still, Greg had woken up enough to understand. He shouted, "We'll be back for you," and grabbed Amaya, gritting his teeth as he pulled the lever. Romeo watched Amaya's face twist in despair just as a mechanical iris sealed the hatch. A red light flashed around the panel three times, and then there was a loud boom as the escape pod's thrusters fired.

Roman grabbed Romeo and threw him against the wall he was standing beside. Roman wiped some blood from his mouth and said, "That was… the wrong move, Romeo. You did catch me by surprise, though." He chuckled and punched Romeo in the jaw. "See, what I'm gonna do to you now… Well, you'll be begging for a quick death by the time I'm done." He slammed Romeo's head into the wall. "Understand? And I'm gonna make you watch when I kill your little PJ Pest friends!"

Romeo groaned, blood trickling from his own mouth now. Roman cackled. "For some reason, I had almost hoped you would resist, you know?" He drug Romeo with him, and about halfway to the console he was walking toward, Romeo got loose.

Romeo stood up and punched Roman back, making the boy drop his weapon. Romeo said, "Well, you're getting your wish!"

⁂⁂⁂

Greg and Amaya were both in shock as the pod re-entered the atmosphere. Greg kept repeating, "Holy shit." Romeo had almost let thousands of people die, and Greg was powerless to do anything. Crap, that was the closest the gang had come yet to allowing something this terrible to happen. This was serious. It wasn't the playground, petty bullshit they were used to with their villains.

Amaya watched her power bracelet on her arm… After a minute or two, it began to glow like normal. "Greg, look! We can transform, we don't have to land the pod."

Greg stopped freaking out and said, "Oh. Well. Let's do it!" He brought his hand down on his bracelet and transformed into a green flash, and Amaya quickly followed suit.

⁂⁂⁂

Back on the ship, Roman had won the fight by a landslide. Romeo lay on the ground, groaning, while Roman typed at a console. "See, Romeo, I'm curious. How'd you cause those explosions and that forcefield to come up? I might just have to swipe the trick you used there."

Romeo coughed on the ground, still out of breath. "Easy… I... Have a special pad in my shoe. I tapped out Morse code instructions to my AI aboard the ship. All the consoles have explosive charges in them… and I told the AI to fire the thrusters just before the weapon fired, to skew our aim."

Roman nodded. "I figured. If it makes you feel any worse, just know that the AI has been deleted. I just found his program. Named it Jarvis, huh? Good name for an AI. We're already back on course for another shot of the positron cannon."

Romeo cursed. "Hoped… you wouldn't find him that easy."

Roman looked down at Romeo and shook his head. "See, it's obvious to me now. I'm better than you, too. You may have had me there for a minute, but the best man is still going to win in the end. You shouldn't have betrayed me." He kicked Romeo on the side. Romeo held on to Roman's leg, though. "Hey, what the–" Romeo pulled the boy's pant leg up, and touched his pinky finger and his thumb to Roman's skin. An electrical current surged through Romeo's glove and through Roman's body. Roman cried out as he was shocked.

Romeo rolled away as Roman fell to the ground, having been tased by a special mechanism Romeo had in that glove. Romeo crawled away quickly. He stopped at a console and turned back on the radio transmitter that Roman had turned off and pushed one more button. He needed Jarvis again, and that meant calling him up over radio link.

He hurried over toward the ladder that went down to deck 3. He was in no shape to do anything to Roman, who was still groaning and incapacitated from the electrical shock. He went down the ladder quickly.

⁂⁂⁂

Gekko and Owlette appeared at PJ Masks HQ. Catboy ran over and hugged them both. "Thank goodness you're alright!" They hugged him back, and he said, "Quick, get your spacesuits. PJ Robot and I fended off Loki, but he put a hole in the HQ."

They looked and were in awe. "Wow," Gekko said.

Catboy pushed them. "Go, quick! We've almost got the PJ Seeker ready to go to space, but we'll need you two to help. It sounded like Romeo is in trouble. We don't have time to dawdle!" They both nodded and hurried to do as he said. Catboy ran off toward the hole in the wall and jumped outside to where he and PJ Robot were getting the PJ Seeker ready. Catboy had a good plan, this time.